Hop skip & a jump.

2 locks / 3^1/₂ miles
Total of 145 locks and 106 miles since 5th Nov 2006

Shortly after Tracey left us last night she rang to say she had seen the carved lion on Dunstable Downs. I thought this strange as she left just on dusk but she told us that the lion is illuminated. So, what to do? Nothing for it but go for a walk up to the ‘T’ intersection at Slapton where we knew we would be able to see the lion providing there was no mist or fog. Sure enough we could see the lion even though we were probably the best part of 7 miles away but it was too far for a photo. But at least we have now seen it day & night.
After sorting out a few chores we pulled the pins about mid morning and set off for Leighton Buzzard. As usual we had the whole canal to ourselves.
On the approaches to bridge 114 there is a whole new housing redevelopment called “The Wharf” not unlike Apsley Mills. When completed it should be very nice. Just before the bridge we spotted an old style BW water point and 14 day mooring signs so we moored up to fill the water tank as we had done a load of washing on the way up here.
While waiting for the tank to fill I checked out what was beyond the bridge as it is on a blind corner. The 14 day moorings extended for about another 300 yards, which incidentally was full of fishermen, then changed to 2 hour moorings alongside Tesco’s supermarket. We opted to move up to the 2 hour moorings and visit Tesco’s and Homebase who are next door to restock. Mid afternoon the fishermen started to pack up so before they had even left we made a very pointed statement by moving back to where they had been fishing and made ourselves at home. It turned out that the damned cheeky fisherman had been fishing right by a new BW water point and parked their cars in Tesco’s car park within about 15 yards of where they were fishing. The gall of some people.